'It' bags and 'quit' bags

The two meet on bagambition.com, where sellers and buyers score

November 16, 2008|By Heidi Stevens, TRIBUNE REPORTER

When that "Sex and the City" sequel finally gets under way, we've got a perfect little plot line.

The gals, reeling from the current economic malaise, are sitting around Carrie's apartment bemoaning how much they've spent on luxury handbags, only to watch them pile up unused in their closets. Miranda, who is so over this conversation (it has been years since she calculated Carrie's $40,000 shoe bill, after all), decides to take action.

"Let me sell them!" she exclaims. "I'll hire a designer, launch a Web site and sell your handbags. Like eBay, only without the weird Virgin Mary-shaped grilled cheese!"

Of course, the writers should probably run this by Barbara Conn, the Lincoln Park resident who actually lived this scene (pretty much). She and her girlfriends were chatting one day, "embarrassingly admitting how much we've spent on bags that are just sitting in our closets," recalls Conn, 43. And that's when her inner entrepreneur kicked into gear.

She gathered gently used designer bags from a bunch of friends, launched a Web site, e-mailed everyone in her database and voila!

Bagambition.com was born.

The site, which launched in July, serves two purposes: You can sell your Prada for cash, or you can purchase that Hermes that was out of your price range the first time around.

"In the beginning I was getting inquiries from buyers from all over," Conn said. "Now I'm getting multiple inquiries from people wanting to sell -- 10 a day."

The current economy, Conn believes, is forcing people to look for something -- anything -- in their possession that isn't drastically losing value. And luxury handbags, because they're high-quality and nearly indestructible, resell for a high percentage of their original price. "Women are now using their handbags as a hedge investment," she said.

So how does Bag Ambition work?

Conn collects bags from interested sellers, verifies their authenticity (she offers a 100 percent authenticity guarantee) and decides on a price based on the designer, age and condition of the bag. She retains a 40 percent commission on all sales.

Shoppers in search of a relative bargain on an "it" bag, meanwhile, can log on at any time to browse the selection of Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Chanel and Hermes bags (among others), ranging in price from $150 to $8,000.

And while an $8,000 bag seems a bit anachronistic in these cash-strapped times, Conn is confident her site serves a niche.

"Fashions change so quickly -- one year you're wearing matchstick jeans, then you're wearing wide-leg jeans, but a good handbag is something everyone always wants," she said. "I would be thrilled if the economy was better, but my site might actually help a lot of people out right now."

We think Miranda would approve.

Luxury bag lovers can flip their Prada for a new one or find the Chanel of their dreams: bagambition.com